Soldiers get real with Iraqis

Saman Faki (left) and Aziudeen al-Jabbar (right) fled Iraq with their families following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. For the last two years the San Diego residents and former high school classmates have worked as role players to help train U.S. military. They are among the many Iraqi role players working with 3rd Infantry Division troops at Fort Stewart.

Saman Faki (left) and Aziudeen al-Jabbar (right) fled Iraq with their families following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. For the last two years the San Diego residents and former high school classmates have worked as role players to help train U.S. military. They are among the many Iraqi role players working with 3rd Infantry Division troops at Fort Stewart.

Military Police attached to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division search a civilian role player at a check point during a cordon-and-search training mission at Fort Stewart. Soldiers are training at the battalion level before next week when the entire 1st Brigade will train together to prepare for deployment to Iraq in January.

Capt. Bryan Dennison of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment talks with an Iraqi role player in a mock village during training at Fort Stewart. Many of the role players prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal attacks against relatives in Iraq.

Capt. Derek Bickler, an Observer Controller from Fort Irwin, Calif., critiques members of 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, Delta Company following a training exercise at Fort Stewart. The soldiers are preparing for a January deployment to Iraq with the 1st Brigade.

Capt. Chris Haun, Delta company commander, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment speaks with role players portraying members of the fictitious International News Network during a training exercise at Fort Stewart. The soldiers are preparing for a January deployment to Iraq with the 1st Brigade.

FORT STEWART - By storming a town without warning, injuring a few residents and entering a mosque in search of an insurgent, the Delta Company soldiers of 3-69 Armor Battalion didn't make the best first impression with the Iraqis.

Fortunately, the Iraqis living in this mock village in Fort Stewart's pine woods are working for the Americans.

They're teaching soldiers, who are about to enter combat, a skill that could save lives: cultural awareness.

"We don't want this to happen in Iraq because it means more hate between the Iraqis and the Americans," said Hamid al Tamimi, an Iraqi exile who sought refuge in the United States. He now role plays an Iraqi mayor for the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.

Tamimi is among 250 Iraqi nationals and more than 1,000 other Fort Irwin trainers on post this week for an intensive combat simulation meant to prepare 4,000 3rd Infantry Division soldiers for another combat tour in Iraq.

Training 'dead on'

Orders came down this week that will send the 1st Brigade Combat Team on its third combat tour in January. The soldiers will replace another brigade now fighting in the volatile Al-Anbar Province in western Iraq.

So knowing how to cordon off and search a village for insurgents - and not create new enemies - is critical. It's also one of the toughest training scenarios soldiers face, said Capt. Bryan Dennison.

"The complexity of this makes it challenging," he said, explaining how soldiers must weigh aggressive tactics against cultural sensitivities.

Otherwise, you risk touching off a minor riot like the one Delta Company had to deal with Wednesday after entering a mosque.

Dozens of Iraqi role players became offended and over-powered an Iraqi police barrier. They began surrounding the 3-69 soldiers, chanting slogans like "Down with Bush! Down with America!"

The uprising was soon quelled, and it provided plenty of talking points for commanders who critiqued the exercise.

"There is no reason to come in that way," 3-69 Commander Lt. Col. Michael Silverman told his soldiers. "Don't come in itching for a fight because you might get one."

Instead, National Training Center soldiers and staff stress the importance of connecting with local leaders like Tamimi before searching a town. Diplomacy is more productive than an outright assault, said Capt. Chris Haun, Delta Company commander.

"These guys are used to fighting and attacking," he said. "What we need to finesse is gaining rapport with civilians, something everyone down to the private on the ground needs to do."

Spc. Nick Inman has deployed to Iraq once before and said the Iraqi role players are the most realistic element of the training.

"Here you have people wailing, screaming at you, coming up and touching you," he said. "It's a lot like Iraq. It's pretty much dead on."

A sense of purpose

The Iraqis who now work for the U.S. military bring a sense of purpose to their jobs.

Teaching American soldiers respect for the country they occupy will go a long way to establishing peace and security, said Saman Faki, 22, who hopes to one day return to his hometown of Irbil, which he fled as a boy after Desert Storm in 1991.

"This benefits both American troops and Iraqis in general," he said. "If I can save one life, whether it's Iraqi or American, I don't care. A life is a life."

Faki and others are teaching soldiers the dos and don'ts of Iraqi society.

For example: Do accept that small cup of Arabic coffee, and shake it to signal you're finished. But don't show the bottoms of your boots when you sit cross-legged to enjoy it. That's an insult to Arabs.

From how to search Arab women to how to respond to gunshots from the local mosque, the Iraqi role players expose soldiers to everything they might encounter in combat.

Even knowing how to say hello in Arabic ("Al salaam a'alykum") can go a long way.

"If you know a few words, it shows the people that you want to be close to them," said Tamimi, an Arab Christian who fled Iraq in 1999 after running afoul of Uday Hussein, the eldest and most violent of Saddam's two sons.

Awaiting a peaceful Iraq

Like many of the role players, Tamimi came to the United States as a political refugee and his extended family remains in Baghdad. He began working for the National Training Center in 2004.

He said he's worried things are deteriorating in Iraq, which makes his work more urgent. Foreign fighters are fueling religious violence between Sunnis and [filtered word]es, and Iraqis are impatient with the lack of basic needs such as fuel and electricity.

"Iraq is going backwards, and that's what makes people say they want to go back to Saddam's days," he said. "Nothing good is happening for the society, just more destroying, more murder. Every day about 100 Iraqis are found dead. "I want things to improve. I want the Americans to come back safe to their families and children. They shouldn't have to pay with their lives."

Still, other role players, such as Aziudeen al-Jabbar, take a more optimistic view.

The San Diego resident and 1991 exile was educated in the United States. He said his father recently returned to their hometown of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq with promising news.

There, he said, things were improving.

That's why he continues to pretend he's an Iraqi police chief and scolds American soldiers about driving too fast through his mock village.

He recently lectured a Humvee driver: Such speed can endanger the children, he said.

"I choose to do this because these soldiers help my country," he said. "They do a favor for my country, so I try to do a favor for them.